Pion and kaon parton distribution functions from basis light front quantization and QCD evolution

Understand

We investigate the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the pion and the kaon by combining quantum chromodynamics (QCD) evolution with the basis light front quantization.

• The initial PDFs result from the light front wave functions obtained by diagonalizing the effective Hamiltonian consisting of the holographic QCD confinement potential, a complementary longitudinal confinement potential, and the color-singlet Nambu--Jona-Lasinio interactions.
• The valence-quark PDF of the pion, after QCD evolution, is consistent with the result from the E-0615 experiment at Fermilab.
• Meanwhile, the pion structure function calculated from the PDFs agrees with the ZEUS and the H1 experiments at DESY-HERA for large $x$.